Riot Games, the American-based developer and publisher behind insanely popular game series like League of Legends, has today announced it will be eliminating 530 jobs globally across the company.
This equates to "around 11% of Rioters" and the biggest impacts have hit teams "outside of core development". In a lengthy message on its official website, Riot explained how it wanted to put the focus back on its games, which have the greatest impact on player experiences:
"The adjustments we're making aim to focus us on the areas that have the greatest impact on your experience while reducing investment on things that don’t."
"We're prioritizing these teams so they can focus on the content, features, and updates that directly respond to what you’ve been asking for. Expect events, modes, and long-term roadmaps that lead to vibrant (hopefully multi-decade) futures for these games."
Riot also reiterated its commitment to its 'core live games' including not only League of Legends but also Valorant, Teamfight Tactics and Wild Rift. However, Legends of Runeterra will have its development team downsized and Riot's publishing label 'Riot Forge' will end new game development, so Riot can "refocus" its efforts.
Riot Forge was an experiment with indie devs to "let them loose on Runeterra" and resulted in six titles spanning different game genres, regions, and characters based on League of Legends. This also included the release of these games on the Switch.
"We’re ending new game development under Riot Forge after the upcoming release of Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story...We’re proud of what we’ve done together to bring these stories to life, but it’s time to refocus our efforts on the ambitious projects underway internally at Riot."
Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story is developed by Lazy Bear and will be arriving on the Switch next month. This news follows a recent report about mass industry layoffs in 2023 as well as Thunderful Group announcing a restructure last week.